Microsoft and Gateway are turning down your street and coming up your driveway. Ready to plug in your home?

LAS VEGAS - Networking took on a whole new meaning here and in New York on Wednesday.

Microsoft unveiled the Microsoft Home in New York, a networked apartment complete with shipping appliances. The apartment is meant to demonstrate how networked products will fit into the life of a consumer in the coming years.

Separately, Gateway is pushing at Comdex a similar habitat for consumers. It has launched a new division, called the Gateway Connected Home, that is dedicated to making the Internet more accessible at home via networking and Internet appliances.

The Microsoft Home in a New York apartment is not open to the public, but it can be viewed online. Versions of the Gateway Connected Home will be demonstrated at Gateway's Country Stores starting this week.

"The Connected Home is a platform for existing devices," said Kevin Hell, vice president of the Connected Home division.

Both homes emphasise home networks and appliances that plug in to access the Internet and all the appliances within a network.

Both home networks and Internet appliances were initially well-received by reviewers, but consumer interest was tepid. But with PC sales growth slowing, manufacturers are looking for alternative revenue streams to buoy the books.

The Connected Home products are meant to complement PCs. Gateway is not targeting first-time buyers but rather more savvy and experienced users who may better understand the advantages of an Internet appliance and networked products.

Simpler interfaces

At the same time the PC maker wants to make the interfaces on devices easier to use. To do so Gateway has teamed with America Online Inc. to use a customised instant-on version of AOL service. The interface is being used in the US$599 Connected Touch Pad, Web terminal, that Gateway, AOL, Broadcom, and Transmeta announced last week. The terminal is expected to ship on December 15 at Country Stores; orders will be taken beginning the 1st.

In the same announcement, the quartet announced the $299 Connected Music Player. The player uses a Broadcom HPNA chip to connect to the home network via phone lines.

Products down the line include a tablet appliance and connection boxes using Broadcom's HPNA chip to allow legacy TVs and telephones to connect to a home network. The boxes are meant to complement devices already in the home and will convert digital signals from the network in analog to be used by devices.

The tablet appliance called the Connected WebPad is expected in the first half of next year and will come with 802.11b wireless networking capabilities. The tablet will be in the $799 to $1,000 range and will come with a graphical keyboard. Gateway officials said that plans for incorporating Palm's graffiti handwriting technology into the WebPad were in the works.

Both the TouchPad and the WebPad use a Transmeta processor.

"We expect this to be a huge opportunity," said Hell. "But we expect ramp up to be slow."

The Microsoft Home in New York has currently shipping products, including an Ultimate TV, Pocket PC, and an MSN Companion device. The devices use CAT 3 cables, HPNA, and 802.11b connections for networking the home.

Microsoft's apartment will be open for 5 months starting this holiday season.

More announcements regarding a networked home are expected from Microsoft at this year's CES.

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